Just saw the new Meridian 10K projector at the Definitive show.

Please take my opinion for what its worth as I do not own a very high end projector like some of you in this section do. I have however gone to this show for several years and have seen some nice projection like the large 3 chip Runcos all the way back to the CRT's with the Snell and Wilcox Interpolator.


First what was cool was that Bob Stuart actually flew over for the show to present the projector. I'm not sure why they insist on calling it 10K(I know, thats what the resolution roughly multiplies out too) but, correct me if I'm wrong as a lot of info was really vague. I think it is 4096 by 2400. According to Bob, contrast ratio was 10,000:1.


It was shown on a 14 foot wide Stewart Cinecurve and they said the brightness on screen was 16 footlamberts. I talked to the rep for a little while and he said it was capable of 4000 Lumens but not clear whether this is a raw number or D6500 calibrated. Apparently though during the demo it was run on low lamp mode so it is capable of pushing larger screens.


This thing is HUGE! The projector itself looked about the size of the Barco 1500 or Sim2 HT5000, but then it was connected somehow to this large base that contained the video processor. Bob said though that there were several ways to install it so I assume it can be separated. The Definitive guys said it took SEVEN of them to move it in.


I sat in the second row(the projector was on the floor) so I was about 18 inches from it. At first I though the fan was a little loud but considering the size I guess it wasn't that bad and I didn't notice it at all during the demo with sound.


The picture looked very good and was plenty bright. I was a little disappointed in the demo material though. All of the demos were running off of hard drives to speed up switching the clips. They showed Gladiator that was apparently recorded off of European HDTV which seemed like kind of a weird call to me. Looked good but not amazing. Then, they played the pre-launch scene from Apollo 13. I thought they were going to use this to demo the dual JL Gothams in the setup but then they didn't even show the launch. Weird. To be honest, the picture on this clip was not that great. I know there is a lot of film grain in this movie and its the directors intent and blah blah blah but I would think there would have been a better selection than this. They then showed the entire intro to Cars which looked truly outstanding. Of course this movie looks great on any display but there was an amazing depth and smoothness to the image and it was hard to imagine it looking better.


The rest of this setup was full Meridian audio except subs which were the dual Gothams.


The price is $175,000. Pretty steep but I'm sure they will sell a few around here. A few people have already bought the Runco 103" plasma at $105,000 according to one of the salesmen. Lots of cash floating around here in microsoft land. Hopefully JVC can bring out a cheaper version with a decent scaler and then this could be a real great option for some lucky people.


Here's some other random thoughs from the show should anyone care:


-Was not that impressed with the Sim2 C3X1080. Of course I would give them the benefit of the doubt because there is always a rush for these companies to get things set up and I think Sim is a new line for Definitive. They showed it on kind of a small Firehawk and there was a lot of screen texture visible. So I guess this has more to do with the setup than the projector itself. Talking with one of the guys he was aware of the problem and they may switch to a Studiotech screen. I think it may have been too small for the brightness of this projector.


-In this same room there were Wilson speakers and the new Levinson processor with amps. This was the debut of the Thor's Hammer sub along setup with Maxx 2's and Watch center and surrounds. Just like last year, I just feel like the sub did not contribute much. IMO they should have pushed it with different material. Wilson is very clear about how important it is to them to have a well integrated sub but would have liked to hear some output as well. If it were my money I would spend the same amount on dual Gothams. The new ML 502 looked cool but all they really talked about was its video processing via dual Gennum chips and at this price I'm sure most folks would be a little more interested in the audio.


-The new Pioneer Elite 151 60" looked great. I have an 8th gen to sort of compare and I wouldn't say the blacks are 5X better and I was still able to tell where the bezel was in the black room. If you just stared at the picture though on 2.35 material it was really hard to see the black bars. They showed Ratatouille which is kind of cheating though IMO and Hancock trailer. IMO this was the best picture at the entire show. Looked really small though after looking projection setups. I wish pioneer could do an 80" version.


-Saw the Meridian MF10 which I think, correct me if I'm wrong is the JVC RS2. Looked nice but was a little dim.


-The Runco 103" plasma was on display with Maggie speakers and AR electronics. The Runco looked pretty good but not as good as some projection setups or the pio elite. The only application I can think of for this is wanting to always view with lights on for football or something. I was sitting pretty close so pixel structure was somewhat visible. It weighs 760 lbs according to the Runco guy.


For the second year in a row I was very impressed with Professional Home Cinema or PHC. This company is not very well known and there website sucks. Paul Hales founded it I guess after having some experience with pro speakers. They are horn based and driven by ICE amps with DSP. It was a small room and there were 9000 watts wih dual 18 inch subs. They played a drum solo from a cream concert that just punched you in the face. I know louder isn't better but the dynamics of this system were amazing and it had the most present dialogue during movie clips. The stuff is pretty expensive though, I think 40K for that system. Seems like you could do something like Mark Seatons Catalyst and subs for a similar result for way less money.


I was trying to get some info from one of the JL audio guys about their new speakers that are supposed to come out this fall but he was real tight-lipped. I think he thought I was some sort of spy or something. He did say though that they will be around 15K per speaker! Talk about coming into the speaker business with a bang. There should be cheaper, smaller versions later according to him. He said they will have internal amps. He kind of laughed at me when I asked if the amps would be ICE which I thought was weird. They must not like the ICE amps. He said internal DSP too. Shoud be a cool product.


This is a really fun show and I suggest anyone in the seattle area come take a look. The second day is usually better in my experience as they have worked out some of the kinks.